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The odds are getting better that 50/50 winners and charities will be walking away from Maple Leaf games with more cash in their pockets next season.

Most other parts of the country — excluding Quebec — currently allow the use of electronic devices to sell 50/50 tickets at sporting events. A staple of hockey games from peewee to the NHL, 50/50 pots at hockey games in Calgary and Vancouver top more than $100,000 several times during a season. The average pot at an Oilers game in Edmonton is $126,000. A fan went home from this year’s Grey Cup in Regina $252,087 richer after winning a 50/50 pot in which half a million dollars of tickets were sold at a single game.

In Toronto, though, pots at Leaf games average around $11,000. Raptor games are even lower. The difference is due to a legal interpretation in Ontario that says charities can’t use electronic devices for raffles.

The law is federal, enshrined in the Criminal Code. Most other provinces interpret it to say that charities can use electronic devices to conduct raffles as long as a winning ticket is drawn by hand. Cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg all switched to electronic raffles years ago and saw their jackpots jump dramatically.

Charities have long been lobbying government to change the rules. The mobile electronic devices allow tickets to be sold faster and the growing pot can be advertised on an arena’s big screen, enticing people to buy their own tickets.

“We’ve been working quietly and sometimes loudly through the media over the last few years to express our desire to bring this electronic product to Ontario,” said Mike Bartlett, executive director of Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment’s Team Up Foundation. “There’ll be more money at the end of the day for every body.”

Now, instead of changing the interpretation of the law to fall in line with the rest of the country, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is launching a pilot program this fall that will allow 50/50 raffles to use mobile electronic devices at Leafs and Raptors games in Toronto, and Senators games in Ottawa — and the government agency is picking up the tab.

OLG is the one overseeing the use the devices, not the charities who receive the money. The law prohibiting charities from using electronic devices still stands.

Bourgeois said he’s fine with the pilot project.

“The OLG has the lawful authority to use computers and to operate a lottery scheme on or through a computer. And that’s what it will be doing,” he said.

Ontario’s interpretation of the criminal code has always been clear that the province must oversee any time an electronic device is brought into any kind of lottery, said OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti.

“What we’re doing is we’re the ones picking up the costs of buying the mobile devices and we will also introduce greater audit integrity enhancements, that type of thing, to increase accountability,” he said.

Bitonti refused to say how much the devices will cost because the OLG has not yet signed a contract.

In Toronto, the MLSE’s Team Up Foundation would have paid for the system is it had been asked to, Bartlett said.

“We recognize that, at some point, should this decentralize in Ontario, it’s a cost of doing business that we’re certainly willing to be responsible for,” he said.

Prices for electronic raffle systems range based on what kind of hand-held devices are used and how many are needed. B.C.-based Tap 50:50 sells hand-held devices for between $500 and $600 each, and CEO Sean O’Hagan said other companies sell units for more than $1,700 each. The companies also charge between six and 12 per cent of total sales as a licensing fee to operate the system, O’Hagan said.

At the Air Canada Centre, 50/50 draws during the pilot project will continue to be run by MLSE’s Team Up Foundation, which will bring in volunteers, sell tickets and collect cash.

“We’re thrilled,” Bartlett said. “This has been a long time coming.”

Other groups, including some junior hockey teams, hope they’ll be able to get in on electronic raffles soon.

Brian Prout, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Sarnia Sting said he “absolutely” wants to see the devices at Sting games.

“Just from a pure implementation standpoint, it allows for a quicker sale and it allows for people to see the jackpot growing,” he said. “And I think those two factors just allow for larger jackpots.”

In Sarnia, the 50/50s are run by the Sting’s booster club and the money goes toward minor hockey.

“Anything to grow the pot, anything to get more money into those local minor sporting initiatives is important,” Prout said.

But in order for junior hockey to get electronic raffles, either Ontario’s interpretation of the criminal code would have to change, or the OLG’s project would have to expand to include minor hockey, which would mean the crown agency would need to purchase more electronic raffle systems.

“Once the pilots are done, we’ll look at further expansion to other venues across Ontario,” Bitonti said.

It’s unlikely all 50/50 draws across the province will become electronic, he added.

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